Berlin- and Singapore-based venture platform GHARAGE Ventures has launched Fund I, a €40 million early-stage fund focused on technologies shaping the future of travel infrastructure and airport retail. The fund is anchored by Gebr. Heinemann, the Hamburg-based global travel retailer, and will invest worldwide from Seed to Series A in startups developing operational technology for airports, travel retail networks, and logistics systems.

The initiative emerges from the venture and innovation activities of Gebr. Heinemann, which over the past several years built the GHARAGE platform as a way to experiment with new technologies and partnerships across the travel ecosystem.

With Fund I, that platform is now structured as an independent venture capital vehicle open to additional industry investors, including airports, brands, and travel retailers interested in early access to emerging technologies.

GHARAGE’s investment thesis starts from a relatively simple observation: while global air travel continues to expand, many operational layers inside airports and travel retail remain heavily manual or fragmented.

The fund is therefore targeting startups developing automation tools, AI-enabled operational systems, digital infrastructure, and logistics technologies that could modernise how airports and travel retailers operate.

The platform already has several early investments. Among them is FileAI, a Singapore startup automating document processing and reconciliation workflows used in complex retail environments. Another portfolio company, Bounce, is building a global luggage-storage network for travellers.

A third, Gumshoe AI, focuses on helping brands maintain visibility in AI-generated search environments as commerce shifts toward conversational interfaces.

GHARAGE expects Fund I to support roughly 30 additional investments across the broader travel and trade value chain. The fund operates from Berlin, Hamburg, and Singapore, reflecting a strategy that treats travel infrastructure as a global system rather than a regional one.

The broader bet is that airports and travel retail could become one of the next major environments for operational technology. Much like manufacturing and logistics before them, these sectors are beginning to experiment with automation, AI-driven workflows, and new digital infrastructure layers.

Venture capital has historically focused on consumer travel products such as booking platforms or mobility apps. GHARAGE instead targets the operational systems that support the industry behind the scenes.

For founders building in these areas, the attraction of a corporate-anchored fund lies in access as much as capital. Airport infrastructure, supply chains, and retail networks are difficult environments to enter without industry relationships. A venture fund backed by a global operator can function as a gateway into those ecosystems.

Whether that model scales will depend on how effectively the fund can translate industry access into repeatable technology deployments. If it does, GHARAGE may represent a broader pattern emerging in venture capital: specialised funds built around a single industrial network rather than a purely financial investment thesis.